Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

The Problem with Seeking Perfection
A couple of days ago, I mentioned the difference between knowing something from book knowledge as opposed to knowing something from actually doing it.

I touched on our tendency to hide behind our studies of whatever we want to excel in, hoping to wait until we know everything perfectly before we actually try it.

That's a big mistake. Learning from doing plays an important role in any attempt to learn. It helps us organize and retain what we learn.

A trick that police interrogators use when they suspect that someone is lying is to ask the person to tell them the sequence of events exactly as it happened. Then they ask the person to describe that same sequence, starting at the end and moving toward the beginning.

When someone lies about a sequence of events, they can keep their story straight because they've memorized the sequence they want to tell. But because they have no physical memory of the event, they have trouble telling it reverse order.

The same thing happens when we try to cram our heads full of theory that we hope to apply successfully later. If all we have is theory in our heads, attempts to piece everything together are elusive.

But if we have physical memories of actually attempting a task, our brains are able to organize the theories around tangible events that have imprinted themselves in our memories.

Even attempts that don't work out perfectly become points that help us organize and retain the knowledge. Mistakes ingrain themselves as dead ends avoid. Successes ingrain themselves as paths to follow.

Both mistakes and successes become magnets that organize and hold those thoughts and ideas into tangible knowledge -- knowing from experience.
Jeff

Labels: mindset, personal growth, successful business